The man who changed my life passed away

One day, my dad came with a black box at home, with a huge smile. I was 11 years old. And the machine was massively simple, the mouse gorgeous, and the box so soft inside . Even if the screen was black and white, I could click, draw, paint, play, admire the structure of the OS, the details with smart utilities.

The other chance was a neighbor having access to all the best blockbusters: Dark Castle, Asian war games and the essential: Superpaint. Yes, Macintosh changed my life from 11 to 35. That’s 24 years of addiction, creativity and investment. 

Last tuesday, a journalist left a message on my mailbox, asking me for an interview on La Première, the main radio station in western Switzerland, scheduled to wednesday morning. I tried to call him back to say yes (I do say yes if my calendar is ok, and yes 08:15 is always an available slot). His number was something like this +41 (0)79.. On a iPhone, the (0) make it impossible to call directly. As I was walking, I decided to postpone the call, what I did for 8 hours. Then during the evening, I remembered the invitation and called the journalist to make a quick check. It was too late to join the debate on Apple walled garden. Yes, I was invited for the first time of my life to debate on Steve Jobs vision, the day of his death (usually I’m invited to talk about FB). A missed appointment due to a failure on a interaction process, or maybe a parapraxis (Acte manqué).

Hopefully, my mistake gave me the chance to keep my mouth shut (and my angry) on what I think on the Walled garden and Steve Jobs consequences on the open web. I will still do it, even if my partners and clients know my position regarding the appstores crowded by internet websites.

Yesterday, I forgot to listen the debate on the radio and move on my usual tasks: workshop with a sport federation at Lausanne on social enterprise, workshop with Polycom students at Rolex Learning center, then 4 interviews of EPFL students, then a HyperWeek presentation in front of 50 other EPFL students, then a meeting with a friend and maybe future hire, presenting the HW roadmap, then evening with my baby Anatole and my family, the last hours writing my profile for investiere.ch, closing my computer at 02:30 am. Hopefully I didn’t check Techmeme just before sleeping, something I usually do (yes even at 01:30 am).

Today, I woke up quietly, having in mind my achievement of the previous evening, and my upcoming meetings. Then I sat, took a picture of my baby on instagram (via an App sigh), with the eyes pointed to the sky, with two flames in the eyes, the mouth open. As you maybe know, just after publishing, you see your following’s pictures. The next 2 pictures: a sad portrait of Steve Jobs, looking at the ground and another one, my first macintosh, with a tear in one eye. A quick jump on techmeme to see 10 RIP statements from the most amazing CEOs and bloggers of the world.

And tears from my side.

Bye Steve.